(Curaçao Chronicle)

Pope Benedict XVI had a love for wearing 18krt golden medieval vestments, which weighted so heavy that he required the assistance of two or even four helpers. Followed by a procession of richly adorned Cardinals, the Princes of the Church all with biretta and golden rings as signs of their royal status, the Pope still puts on the biggest show on Earth. When His Holiness enters the Saint Peter’s Basilica, the richest religious temple in the world filled with endless wealth, he wears the “Triregnum,” a headgear with three crowns, also called the Triple Tiara.

Dear Editor,

  We are addressing this open request for help to the honourable people of Anguilla during this auspicious time of your 50th Anniversary (May 30) of the Anguilla Revolution. Firstly, we would like to congratulate you on your continued stability as a nation and wish everyone God’s blessings.

  For the record, we the citizens of the Caribbean who have registered businesses, personal or business bank accounts in Anguilla over the past 10 years have had funds deposited in our bank accounts prior to March 24, 2016 confiscated.

  The National Bank of Anguilla (NBA) (Private Banking & Trust Ltd. (PB&T)) was regulated by the Anguilla Financial Services Commission and not the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). Both of these institutions acted improperly and they facilitated the removal of the Depositors funds from the PB&T.

  The transgression took place under the nose of the Government of Anguilla, United Kingdom Government, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other Offices of the Government since they are all alleged to have been part and parcel of the decision making process that has led to this mistreatment of honest, hard-working Caribbean citizens and Anguilla nationals.

  My Anguillian comrades, we are being taken unfair advantage of, and we need your support to ensure good judgement and honesty prevails to ensure the return of Depositors rightfully owned assets and the full guarantee of all Customer deposits.

  Our rights have been violated and our assets were taken unjustly and we are all the victims of naked discrimination against foreigners and nationals.

  Furthermore, no provision has been made for prompt, adequate and effective compensation as required by International Law.

  There are numerous Anguilla registered companies and their shareholders that have been affected. One of the prime examples is a company called SATAY Limited which was incorporated since 2005 in Anguilla. SATAY Limited is a fully registered business with a CBTC Licence granted by the Ministry of Finance and existing under the laws of Anguilla to conduct business on the Island of Anguilla.

  SATAY Limited has two local Directors on its board and this entity indirectly provided employment to seven Anguilla nationals through its business related alliance with Counsel Limited, a locally owned accounting firm.

  Counsel Limited provides support to 11 other real Caribbean-based trading companies such as SATAY Limited. We (Depositors) are all residents in the Caribbean and engage in active business.

  The shareholders of SATAY Limited originally chose to conduct business in Anguilla due to the ease of which transactions could be facilitated through the professionalism, dedication and prompt service they received from the Anguilla staff working at the NBA and Counsel Limited.

  Secondly, we would like to present some background information so that everyone understands what has occurred in your banking sector and the present terrible financial situation. Until recently there were in Anguilla only two “domestic” banks, i.e. banks owned by Anguillian shareholders and not affiliated with any foreign bank, to wit, the NBA, and the Caribbean Commercial Bank (CCB). Both the NBA and the CCB had subsidiaries which were licensed to accept deposits from persons who were not citizens of Anguilla (the “Offshore Banks”).

  Neither parent bank (the “Onshore Banks”), nor any other bank operating in Anguilla, was licensed to accept deposits from persons who were not citizens, or from companies beneficially owned by persons who were not citizens of Anguilla.

  However, because the beneficial owner of SATAY Limited and the owners of the other 11 Caribbean based trading companies, are not Anguillan “belongers,” SATAY Limited’s operating bank account and the other 11 companies was for some reason opened in one of the two Offshore Banks, the NBA (Private Banking & Trust) Ltd.

  From inception the NBA PB&T, in spite of being a separate legal entity, was operated by its parent, the NBA, as if it were no more than an internal department, and a cash cow, of the parent. PB&T sent deposited funds to the NBA which treated them as its own, using them as it saw fit. The Directors, Officers and management of the PB&T were oblivious to their fiduciary duty to protect the PB&T’s accountholders, even after the liquidity problems of the NBA became, or should have become, apparent to them.

  On or about August 12, 2013, to protect the position of the Onshore Banks’ depositors, and without reference to the Offshore Bank’s depositors, both Onshore Banks were placed into Conservatorship, subject to the control of the ECCB.

  The PB&T was not in Conservatorship, but, from the time of the appointment of the NBA’s Conservator, being that PB&T was a subsidiary of the NBA, the Conservator of the NBA was the de facto operating manager of the PB&T.

  Consequently, the highly improper practices established during NBA’s pre-Conservatorship management of PB&T were adopted and continued during the Conservatorship to the ultimate detriment of the PB&T and its depositors. That the Conservator, like the NBA/PB&T managers he succeeded, might have a conflict of interest, and conflicting fiduciary duties to the two banks, appears to have been intentionally ignored by all concerned, including the ECCB, their appointed Conservator, and the directors, officers and managers of both the Onshore Bank and the Offshore Bank.

  The ECCB and the Anguilla Financial Services Commission must be held accountable for the mismanagement of all local and Caribbean Depositors accounts as they willingly accepted deposits and allowed withdrawals from SATAY Limited’s account at the NBA PB&T.

  SATAY Limited never received any official notice and was never made aware of the fact that the NBA was placed into Conservatorship on August 12, 2013 and was subject to the control of a Conservator appointed by the ECCB from that date until April 22, 2016. In any event the Conservator has never placed any restrictions on withdrawals from balances on SATAY Limited’s accounts or any of the other business accounts at the NBA.

  Thirdly, SATAY Limited was operating as an active legitimate business with a bank account that was fully functional from 2005 up to April 2016.

  No solutions or viable alternatives are being offered to SATAY Limited or any of the Caribbean based Depositors and their businesses at this time. We have no access to our bank accounts and irreparable harm is being done to our businesses and livelihoods.

  Since appointment, the ECCB as Conservators of the Onshore Banks worked on a plan to restructure them (the “Resolution Plan”). That plan was implemented on April 25, 2016 with the merger of the two privately owned Onshore Banks into a new entity, the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla (NCBA), wholly owned by the Government of Anguilla.

  The Offshore Banks had no part in the merger. All the assets of the Onshore Banks were acquired by the NCBA, but only some of their liabilities were assumed. Among the assets acquired are the PB&T’s depositors’ funds in the custody of the NBA. Among the liabilities not assumed is the obligation to pay to the PB&T or to the depositors of the PB&T any funds deposited prior to 24 March 2016.

  The ECCB and one of its appointed Conservators (who is now the CEO of NCBA), the Receiver of the NBA (a former senior employee of the NBA), in collusion with the Government of Anguilla, sought to protect only its domestic depositors, and to do so at the expense of its Caribbean-based and other foreign depositors, instead of taking meaningful steps to correct the mismanagement of the assets of the Onshore Banks which led to their collapse in the first place.

  The only way for Anguilla to exist with stability and integrity within the global financial system and region is by ensuring due diligence prevails and the money that was wrongly taken from the PB&T bank accounts and local registered companies is immediately returned to the Depositors.

  Failing this, Anguilla will lose all credibility and stability in the international banking sector and we will all be going down a long road to financial loss through lengthy litigation processes.

  The news of the Anguilla financial debacle is gaining media coverage globally and many more Anguilla nationals in the indigenous banking and financial services support sectors will lose their jobs as the locally registered Caribbean-based and international businesses will be forced to take their investments elsewhere and bank accounts will never materialise at the newly formed NCBA.

  Our fate is in your hands and we implore the good people of Anguilla and local Government to implement appropriate regulation and legislation, judicious licensing, comprehensive monitoring and good governance to ensure the Caribbean based Depositors bank accounts and rightfully owned business assets are returned to us so that we would not lose faith in your system and can continue our good business relationships with Anguilla.

  Respectfully,

The Depositors

Dear Editor,

As my working visit to Beijing, China, continues, it is with a deep sense of loss that I received the news of the passing of Joyce Daniel-Romney, a lifelong friend and supporter.

Joyce was a humble, down-to-earth woman with a pleasant personality and an all-conquering contagious smile. She was an unwavering supporter of the SPM, the SPA and National Alliance, lending her strong support to me personally wherever my political career took me. She was a member of the National Alliance District Council in South Reward, helping to turn the district into a stronghold of the party.

But it was not politics that brought us together. Her warm character and tell-it-like-it-is attitude was endearing to all those who were privileged to have known her.

At times like this, words are never enough to express how we feel. That is because, when a friend or a loved one passes on, something in us goes with them. But as an unknown author said, “True friends are the ones who never leave your heart, even if they leave your life for a while...and even if they die they're never dead in your heart.”

Joyce was a true friend who will certainly never die in my heart.

On behalf of the National Alliance family and mine, I wish to extend sincere condolences to her husband, children and grandchildren as well as to her brothers and sisters and all the loved ones she left behind.

May her soul rest in perfect peace.

Prime Minister William Marlin

Dear Editor,

  Seventeen years ago I went to Suriname for the first time.  One of the things that caught my attention is that there were no very big tour busses.  Neither for tours or for the rest of the public transportation.  Even though the majority of the roads are twice the width of our roads and as I was explained, Paramaribo, where I stayed, is about four times the size of St. Maarten there were only what we call here Coasters (24 seats).  Paramaribo counted approximately 200,000 inhabitants at that time.

  On my arrival back on St. Maarten I spoke to people involved in importing motor vehicles in St. Maarten as well as politicians in government, concerning the imminent traffic congestion if the import of motor vehicles which was growing steadily is not stemmed. One of the answers that I got was that there were already discussions concerning traffic congestion, but at that time those involved in the harbour did not think it was necessary to make that a priority.

  Later I understood why because as time progressed and seeing the developments I assumed at that time that already plans for more oversized busses were in the making.  Because for years now we have had the same people in government, my question is who is to blame for the tight squeeze that we have at the Rhine road in Maho.  I have another question though.  Are there not daily tight squeezes all over the island? So is it only because Maho is feeling the squeeze now that mention is made of it in the papers?

  Brings back thoughts of how the politicians reacted when a restaurant was closed because of hygiene conditions.  I am sure you have letters from me concerning traffic congestion.  With Public transportation in the hands of the public (government) there will be less traffic congestion.  Place bus stops in the essential places. Guarantee public transportation to all points of the country. Better control on the gypsies and I can go on.  If we do not control the import of motor vehicles and these, for St. Maarten, oversized tour busses and also if we do not stop the increase in the amount of motor vehicles per car rental, we are going to kill the goose that lay the golden egg.

  The time share saga has already put a dent in the industry, and the cruise industry seems to be concentrating on quantity and not quality. The constant increase in numbers of cruise passengers has not done anything for the private sector in proportion to their sales. There is no option for free parking around the airport.

  No everything must not be free; but when in years the minimum wage has not correctly been adjusted and everything else cost money and the cost of living is constantly and steadily increasing  and the elected government officials are compensated for two years after, if they are re-elected to be able to ease themselves back into where they were before being elected, where is everyone going to get the means of paying for all of these extras which the majority of us cannot avoid, as a consequence of the inadequate  governing for so many years?

  So do not only deal with what causes the traffic squeezes but also replace the traffic lights at the Bernhard bridge for lights of which parts can be obtained when necessary or change the traffic situation on the spot. It is obvious that the lay of the land would call for moving back and shifting, but that is nothing new for us. The causeway is proof of that. 

I almost did not mention that the slower the traffic moves the more gasoline is burned.

Russell A. Simmon